Beer Drinker Appreciation Society (BDAS)--OPEN (Page 52)

Nice one Matt! Sounds like you're in the right shape

I had my first Sprint yesterday & had a great time. I was not looking forward to the swim, but despite the fact that alllll my crawl training went out the window in the pack I'm really happy. The only downside is that like a rookie, I lost my chip somewhere at the beginning, so had to get the officials to log my time at the end. All good though

Final time was 1:32:07. Thanks for all your help over the last couple of months! I'm already looking to book my next

What Juan said!  Definitely do it!

Matt - holy cow that's craziness.  Glad you're taking all those hours in stride and doing well!  Not gonna lie, was originally planning an Oly for September this year, but in the water on a 1/3 mile swim in my race Saturday, decided the jump to .9 mi was too great.  2.4?  Pfffffffffff....  :D

Ben - congrats!  The first is the best.  Now you're a triathlete, and no one can take that away from you.  Also now you have a goal time to beat when you do the same race next year!

Last post for now - the race Saturday went pretty well.  In some respects ok, in some respects very well, averaging out to 'pretty well' lol.

Swim - I did about as well as I could have expected, though I hoped for better with the full sleeved wetsuit on.  I didn't factor in being my first full sleeved wetsuit swim and not being used to the tightness of it, and the water temp affecting my breathing.  66 degrees F, that's cold for me even in a wetsuit.  It didn't feel that cold getting in, but trying to swim in it - I just couldn't catch my breath.  (1:58/100yd)

T1 - lol.  I had one of those T1s where you know it didn't go well, but you look at the time and think "what did I order out for pizza and wait for delivery?  What took so long?!" (3:12)

Bike - so awesome.  Rolling little hills, most would consider the course flat  Passed many, got passed by a few tri bikes with Zipps, and one lady older than me on an endurance bike with no aero bars.  However, and this is good news for any of you men toying with the idea of leg shaving, it was a PR avg speed.  By a full mph.  To an outsider I know that sounds like nothing but for me 1 mph is huge! (19.6mph)

T2 - must have been eating that pizza I ordered (2:18)

Run - slow for me, still.  I had a fantastic year with the run my first year in tri, then dropped a min/mile off my own pace the last two seasons.  Wish I knew where my speed went.  Probably to the bike... (8:36/mi)

Anyway I finished strong and not completely spent, which I'm totally fine with for my 'B' race.  Lots to improve on as the season goes on.  And, I finished 4th in the usually terribly competitive 40-44 AG.  Now, there were only 10 of us so that puts me at my usual 'MOP' position (Middle Of Pack).  Also, the guy in 3rd spot on the podium in my AG was 5 minutes ahead of me.  5 minutes, in a sprint, that's like a week.  A week spent in transition apparently researching different translations of Homer's Odyssey from ancient Greek.

I'll get an RR up later, for now it's Monday and I have at least a thousand meetings to attend to.

Congratulations on your first tri - that's awesome.  And that first swim is always an adventure.  I took so long that my wife was about to swim out and get me during my first one. 

IF you read through my race reports, you will see various references to picnics and bottles of wine during my transitions. 

Nice race - I was wondering how that wetsuit was going to be for you.  For colder water, I just stick my head in it for a few minutes beforehand to get that initial breathing shock over with.

That's an awesome wife!!! 

I train and race with power and I love it.  There is something of a learning curve and if you don't spend the time to learn and understand what it's telling you, it's really just an overpriced metric....but if you use it for the tool it can be, it's awesome.  What kind of budget are you looking at?  That will steer your choices for what to get.  If you want to do a ton of reading, check this out: https://www.dcrainmaker.com/2016/09/power-meters-buyers-guide2016-edition.html

Your 920 will pair with an ANT+ power meter (most / all of them).  That said, I like to have a separate bike computer for ease of viewing (and not having to worry about one of those quick releases, where I've heard too many horror stories about it getting kicked off in the swim).  I have my computer mounted on top of the bottle cage I have between my aero bars: http://www.trisports.com/speedfil-z4-bottle-cage-with-garmin-arm.html

I have a Quarq on my race bike and a less-expensive 4iiii on my trainer bike.  Both are crank-based, but there are other options as well (hub, pedal)....each has their own set of pros and cons.  Take a look through DCR's reviews and I'm happy to share any information I may know.  This is exciting!

Congrats John! Sounds like it went really well! I loved the ride bit in mine too. Something great about steaming past all the carbon on my steel horse :D

Where was your race?

Steel horse!  Good for you!

Race was in Wareham, MA.  I'm positive it takes it's name from a town/city in England, as so many do here in Massachusetts.  In any case the location was beautiful - swim and run were completely on AD Makepeace (cranberry growers) property.  The bike went on local roads, most were quiet the non-quiet one had plenty of police blocking traffic.

Gretchen, Jenn, ON - good to hear from you all!

ON there's no such think as a drunk waste of life when there's a wedding involved and a good DJ - glad you had fun!

RR is up from my Sprint this past weekend:

http://beginnertriathlete.com/discussion/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=547521&mid=5222303#M5222303

but you guys already knew pretty much everything in there.  The interesting thing at least for me is that, while I was 5th in my AG in the swim, I was 3rd in the bike and the run.  And I missed the 3rd spot on the podium (this organizer does awards top 3 in every AG) by 5 full minutes.  I know I was slow on the swim but must have lost the better part of that difference in Transition.  It really is the 4th sport.

Originally posted by nicole14e Matt congrats on your first tri! How exciting! John, your report made me lol. I'm glad the tri went "pretty well"! Gretchen, great to hear from you! Definitely go on the trip. You are a rockstar and will be fine and I know nothing about power meters, but yay for your wife getting you that! I was a (drunk) waste of life this weekend. Had a super fun wedding Saturday. Seriously, the DJ was TOO good. I wanted to sit down but every song he played had to be danced to. Anyway, I failed at doing any training this weekend so am going to have to get back at it this week!

Sounds like training to me.  

I'm another that uses/trains with power.  I have an older Powertap hub and I've paired it with the Trainerroad app, my 920XT, and like Nicole also my Garmin bike computer (Edge 800) for ease of viewing.  I have one of those little Garmin mounts on the aerobar (when they're on the bike) and the handlebars (when they're not attached).  I'm still on the learning curve riding outdoors; I've been using Trainerroad for almost six years (!!!) now so I've been using their "virtual power" for forever and now the Powertap.  

Juan - that is a heck of a day in the saddle right  there!  And Vuelta a Espana climbs no less... Also have I mentioned I love your bike?  

Gretchen - welcome home!  What a long trip!!!

Sounds like everyone is hitting their stride in training and race season, which is great!

Had the annual Father's Day 5k yesterday (a family tradition).  My 7 year old daughter ran it for the first time!  So proud!!  She ran with my wife so I could go my own pace, which was good enough for top 5% of finishers.  Slower than my PR 5k by about a minute but I don't know if I'll get another PR...

Back into the swing of things for me - 5 weeks till my next Tri.  And after that, I have zero booked.  I want to do another Tri in early September, and want to get some cycling only events on the calendar (though not as long or hilly as Juan's!).  There's one in Newport, RI called the Four Bridges Ride I've had my eye on.  'Only' 26 miles, and the hill climbs are the bridges over Narragansett Bay.  Pretty cool.  Still thinking about a Half or full Marathon in October...